Holding On

What will you do if you win $1 million in a promotional gimmick by one of the country’s biggest corporations?

Would you take the next trip to Orlando, Florida and visit Disney World? Or probably tour around the Caribbean Island, the Bahamas or Cayman for a beautiful one-month get-away?

Me? I’ll take my wife and three kids and push through with our tour to historic sites like Israel, Turkey and Rome. That would be a dream come true for us, and certainly, I could have tons to blog too and thousands of pictures and videos to share to people!

But wait! Thousands of years ago, a general by the name of Joshua and his band of inexperienced Israelites bagged the biggest prize of their time—the Promised Land. It was the land of Canaan, the place where kings with far more advanced technologies, people more experienced in war and far better know-how in a lot of things, were living.

These Canaanites, Perrizites, Amorites, among others (see Joshua 12) fell into the hands of the Israelites, thanks to God’s mighty intervention (Joshua 23:3).

However, Joshua gave a word of caution to the Israelites just before he was to breathe his last breath. Since there were still some remaining Canaanites living in the land, Joshua gave them this charge—“But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now” (Joshua 23:8).

Hold fast. Cling to. Never letting go. These are some of the words that came through my mind as I think of that verse. Joshua was like saying, “Guys, as much as the land of Canaan is great, don’t you ever forget the Lord, who was the real Reason for your victorious entry into the Promised Land. Hold on to Him. He’s your reason for being.”

While winning several million bucks would be fun and exciting, the “high” you’ll experience there will never be forever. Bottom line is, hold fast to the One who could give you the real reason for being.

God alone can give you that “high”. It’s not just the emotional lift you need for now, or the good grades you’ll get as you trust Him, but it’s the truth that when you have a genuine, personal relationship with Him, you will enjoy not the blessing but the Source of blessing. So hold fast to Him!